About Mole Sauce:
Mole or mole sauce is a dark brown Mexican sauce or gravy made from dry chiles, nuts, spices, vegetables, chocolate and seasonings. It takes a great deal of time to prepare and is served as chicken mole, in beef or pork for special occasions and holidays in Mexico. Mole Poblano, Mole verde, Pipian and Adobo are some other variations of mole.

THE STORY OF MOLE by Artemio del Valle Arizpe Mexico City’s Journalist from 1937 to 1942.

Don Artemio del Valle Arizpe, in his chronicles about the invention of MOLE, he refers to the city of Puebla, in the convent of the Dominican sisters and mothers of Santa Rosa. Viceroy’s visit to the city of Puebla, had set in motion all the convents of the city, where the fervent nuns made every effort to send the Viceroy all their most varied dishes. At the convent of Santa Rosa, Sister Andrea worried about what dish was to be sent to the Viceroy, consulted with the other nuns about which delicacy should they choose. Mother Teresa of Jesus suggested that a Stewpot (Puchero) be sent, Sister Andrea of the Assumption suggested fragant pork in granada, 8-pot refried beans, succulent pigion a la criolla but none of this dishes inspired by those dedicaded souls to the service God, pleased them, since the whole idea was to satisfy his excellency. But Sister Andrea would not give up in her effort to send his Excellency a delicious dish, which showed the spirit of Mexico beating in all its graceful figure, but she couldn’t figure out, how to set up a dish that was the delight of even the more refined palate.

Suddenly, Sister Andrea started feeling a soft interior hum, the stillness that came before the great moments of life; she tried to shut that minor inner speech. On Monday she communed in the light marked polychromatic tile worked chapel. The Virgins and Saints watched from their altars at Sister Andrea softening their faces even more.

Sister Andrea quickly went into the kitchen; she had a bright idea, the cross on her chest beating fast. She entered the kitchen, the ceiling tiles, three white domes, the front ones attached to the wall, cabinets, all smiled to her with their reflections, loving, happy to have her inside each and everyone of them. Sister Andrea approached the stove top, ready to give Mexico, new and illustrious perfections.

The previous evening, Sister Andrea had the turkey they have been fattening with nuts, chestnuts and walnuts; killed. In a tray were laid the pieces that were cut. Inspired, Sister Andrea put various chiles in a pot, chile ancho, chile mulato, she then got chile chipotle from a box from Michoacan and from another she chose the rabid chile pasilla. In a pan she put lard and when it started squeaking she fried the chiles in it and in a comal she toasted sesame seeds. Sister Andrea then began to grind cloves, peppers, peanuts, cinnamon, almonds, anise and cumin and from the white and blue Chinese ceramic jar were the nun chocolate was kept, she took two tablets and put them together into the freshly ingredients she had previously grounded. In a pestle she grounded tomatoes, onions, and toasted garlic; she then mixed together all the spices she had previously grounded with this garlic, onions and tomatoes. She then mixed all of that with hard tortillas she got from a tall pot; she kneeled in front of the black grinding stone where it seemed like she was going to ask a favor to the Virgin. She stared grinding all of those things; she was busy doing that, when Sister Martha, with a smiling admiration and clasping her hands said:

! Oh Mother of Mine, and how well you MOLE (she said instead of Muele (grind)) your reverence! A candid jingle of happy laughter escaped the mouths of the other nuns, due to the mistake of the sweet Christian nun. ! Mother, grind (muele), grind (muele), not MOLE, for God sakes! They all repeated in a festive choir.

Sister Martha, your Reverence with your funny “Slip of the tongue,” you have given name to this dish I’m making with divine favor, it shall be named MOLE even though I know the word MOLE in Nahuatl or Mexican means Sauce or stew.

Then in a clay pot, it had to be clay so its pure perfume will be joined delicately to the food. In that clay pot a bast amount of lard was melted, in which sage and thyme were previously burned to ward off evil spirts. Sister Andrea poured in that mixture, that made the lard squeek and hiss for a long time and all the convent was embalmed in a new fragance.

In the pot where the turkey was cooked, Sister Andrea took out various gourds of thick broth and while pouring them into the pot with the mole, she stirred and with every purring sound, the admiration of every single one of the nuns praising heaven for that dish was heard. One even said that the dish had more spirit than most of the books they had in their library. After giving various tastings to the sisters, Sister Andrea put the four pieces of Turkey into the sauce, when they were very well soaked and they had absorbed all the flavor from the sauce, she then placed them on a flowered talavera dish and still the polished hand of the nun fluttered on top of the talavera sprinkling sesame seeds.

The Viceroy and all of his guests reached ecstasy easily with this wonderful dish. Never had the mouth of his excellency tasted anything so unique and wonderful. The spicyness enflamed his tongue and eagerly pushed him to take more and more with warm, fluffy and soft tortillas.

That day and the next and every day that the Viceroy stayed in the City of Puebla de los Angeles, he asked to be sent from the Convent of Santa Rosa that eminent dish, the genuine turkey Mole that bathed his heart in enormous delight. Why isn’t Sister Andrea of the Assumption on the altars of Christianity? Oh Lord what a great injustice!